Patent GB-900543-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to document sorting apparatus
Filed: 1958-12-04
Abstract: 900,543. Stacking sheets. BURROUGHS CORPORATION. Dec. 4, 1958 [Dec. 26, 1957], No. 699/62. Divided out of 900,541. Class 100 (1). [Also in Group XIX] Document-sorting apparatus with means for delivering sorted documents into receiving bins has in each bin a packer device normally held clear of the pile of documents in the bin but moved down on to the pile immediately prior to the delivery of another document into that bin. This packer device, which is used to sense when a bin is full and then to actuate a warning device is associated with a main packer which is normally in engagement with the top of the pile and is raised prior to the delivery of another document. The invention is applied to cheque-sorting apparatus (see also Group XIX) associated electrically with an accounting machine and with a multiple tapeprinting unit as described in Specification 900,541. The accounting machine has three columns, each of nine, totalizer-selecting keys and the sorting apparatus has three corresponding columns, each of nine, bins for receiving cheques sorted under the control of the totalizer-selecting keys. A switch is associated with each column of selector keys and is closed when any key in that column is depressed. Similarly, a switch is associated with each row of three selector keys and is actuated by depression of any key of that row. Conveyers and deflectors.-On the energization of a solenoid DRS, Fig. 6, the stop member which arrests the cheque soon after its insertion into a shoot 1600 is rocked to an ineffective position and withdraws the cheque-sensing switches. A cheque conveyer is driven from a shaft 1560 in turn driven through a friction clutch, Fig. 12 (not shown), engaged by a solenoid. The shaft carries two pulleys, each of which drives a belt 1831 and when the stop member is moved out of the path of the cheque, rollers press the cheque against the belts 1831 which feed it into a horizontal conveyer leading to three columns, each of nine bins corresponding to the three rows of nine registers. The cheque passes between guide plates 1860, 1862, Fig. 15, and is held against the under surface of the belts 1831 by rollers 1870; the belts are backed by spring-loaded rollers 1865. Each column of bins is fed by a vertical conveyer formed of a pair of belts 1880 and cooperating pairs of rollers 1932, 1935. The guide plates 1860, 1862 of the horizontal conveyer lead into one vertical conveyer but the other two are fed by column deflectors 1915, 1916 rockable to an effective position by corresponding solenoids CD2 and CD3 (not shown) under the control of the column selector key switches. Each vertical conveyer has nine solenoid-operated bin deflectors 1930, 1931 rockable to deflect cheques into corresponding bins 1942 and under the control of the row selector key switches. Additional rollers 1989, Fig. 25, driven by the rollers 1932 ensure a full feed into the bins. At the bottom of each column is a fixed deflector 1995 leading to a removable tray 1992 to receive any cheques which inadvertently have passed all the deflectors. As a cheque is deflected into a bin, it rocks a finger 1980 to operate a corresponding switch, e.g. SD1. The latter switches keep the sorter operated and prevent the initiation of another sorter operation until the document arrives in its bin. Document trays.-Each bin receives a removable document tray, Fig. 27, carrying a packer bail 2010 from which lengths 2195 of light chain are suspended to brake-sorted cheques. The packer bail normally presses down on to the sorted cheques under the influence of an operating bail 2015 having a finger 2017 by which it may be manually operated to release the cheques. During a sorting operation, the bails 2010, 2015, for the column of bins to receive a cheque are raised by levers 2020, Fig. 25, rocked by a camoperated slide 2025. The operating cam is driven by a clutch 2040 which makes a half revolution to raise the bails on the energization of a corresponding solenoid, e.g. PB1, and a further half revolution to restore the bails on de-energization of that solenoid which occurs after operation by the cheque of the sensing finger 1980. Each slide 2025 actuates a switch, e.g. PS1. Sensing full bins.-An. auxiliary bail 2065 is swung on arms 2068 into engagement with the pile of cheques before the packer bail 2010 is raised and a newly sorted cheque passes over it into the tray. Each auxiliary bail 2065 is operated by a link coupling it with the associated bin deflector, and is arranged to scrape the base-plate 1942 of the next higher bin so as to remove any cheque adhering to it due to static electricity. When a bin is full, the movement of the corresponding auxiliary bail is limited and a slide 2096 raised by extensions 2078 of the arms 2068, and normally allowing restoration of a corresponding switch, e.g. FBS1, will be unable to do so, which results in the energization of a warning light and, as described below, the unlatching of the full tray and the prevention of a further operation of the sorter until the appropriate door has been opened and closed to empty the full tray. Tray latches; preventing operation with full bin.-Each tray has a pair of fingers 2105, Figs. 26 and 27, which co-operate with a latch 2106 pivoted on a slide 2108 for that column of bins. In an operation in which a full-bin switch, e.g. FBS1, is operated, the corresponding one, e.g. BL1, of three bin latch solenoids is energized to lift the associated slide 2108. In the same operation the particular latch 2106 for the tray just filled is further conditioned under the control of the corresponding bin deflector, and on restoration of the latter, that latch is rocked to an ineffective position to enable the full tray to be removed. The latch is coloured to indicate which tray is to be emptied. The bin latch solenoid is held energized by a corresponding switch, e.g. RD1,  actuated by a lever 2147 in turn operated by a slide 2135 raised by the solenoid, e.g. BL1. The switch RD1 also energizes an indicating lamp DL1 for the column and prevents a further operation until the door enclosing the bins of the corresponding column has been opened and closed. For this purpose, the door operates mechanism which maintains the switch RD1 closed while the door is open, and which resets the mechanism which actuates the lever 2147. In an all-register total operation, a relay BLR is energized and shifts a slide 2177 which, through levers 2186, raises the three slides 2108 to uppermost positions so as to move all of the latches 2106 to ineffective positions. After the operation, the slide 2177 is restored manually by a knob 2192.